Education pauses in the face of violence
It seems that the most important lesson this Monday in Uruapan was not in the textbooks, but in the empty streets. In a move that mixes mourning with protest, all schools, public and private, decided to suspend classes. The reason? An act of violence as brutal as it was predictable on the national scene: the murder of Mayor Carlos Manzo. Because nothing says “rejection of violence” like closing the doors of knowledge, a measure as effective as it is sadly necessary to, supposedly, guarantee the safety of the student community. What better way to prepare for the future than by canceling the present, don’t you think?
And the always eloquent Michoacana University of San Nicolás de Hidalgo could not miss the event, which issued a statement to express its “deepest rejection” and join the “cry for a future of harmony.” One can almost visualize the communications department searching the thesaurus for the most grandiose words to describe such a sordid reality. It is truly moving to see how academic bureaucracy joins popular pain with phrases that sound good on paper but, ironically, fail to stop a bullet.
The streets, the new classroom of protest
While the classrooms woke up in silence, the squares were preparing for the collective cry. Because, of course, if there are no classes, what better plan than a demonstration? In Morelia, the students were called to a march around noon. Imagine the scene: young people who would normally be solving equations or analyzing poems, now carrying signs and chanting slogans against insecurity. A practical subject in extreme civics. And, as if it were a two-for-one offer in expressions of indignation, in picturesque Pátzcuaro they also had their own parade of mourning and protest planned.
One wonders if the criminals who orchestrated this assassination will stop to reflect on the profound educational impact of their actions. Probably not. But at least the message is clear: when violence silences the authorities, society responds by closing schools and going out to march. A perfect equation where the sum of fear and indignation results in a day of paralysis. Brilliant strategy or sad symptom of the times, you decide.
It is the same old Mexico, where a normal day of studies can be canceled due to a criminal act, and where the institutional response is measured in press releases and suspensions of activities. A country where students learn, the hard way, that the most important lesson in civics often occurs outside the classroom, amidst slogans and the palpable absence of justice.
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